Reaching for Environmental Health Justice: Canadian Experiences for a Comprehensive Research, Policy and Advocacy Agenda in Health Promotion

Spatial disparities in environmental quality and practices are contributing to rising health inequalities worldwide. To date, the field of health promotion has not contributed as significantly as it might to a systematic analysis of the physical environment as a determinant of health nor to a critique of inequitable environmental governance practices responsible for social injustice-particularly in the Canadian context. In this paper, we explore ways in which health promotion and environmental justice perspectives can be combined into an integrated movement for environmental health justice in health promotion. Drawing on Canadian experiences, we describe the historical contributions and limitations of each perspective in research, policy and particularly professional practice. We then demonstrate how recent environmental justice research in Canada is moving toward a deeper and multi-level analysis of environmental health inequalities, a development that we believe can inform a comprehensive research, policy and advocacy agenda in health promotion toward environmental health justice as a fundamental determinant of health. Lastly, we propose four key considerations for health promotion professionals to consider in advancing this movement

Celebrating Risk: The Politics of Self-Branding, Transgression and Resistance in Public Health

Persons ‘branded’ as dangerous to the public’s health often try to hide their status (as smokers, as HIV positive, etc). Yet, a small but growing subgroup has re-appropriated stigma symbols and voluntarily branded themselves as ‘marked’ individuals, rebellious, transgressive and refusing to be shamed by their status. In this article we examine voluntary branding as acts of resistance, paying particular attention to bodily practices that disrupt dominant aesthetic and moral/political sensibilities. We draw on our research and observations in the realms of smoking and bareback sex to illustrate and address broader issues of branding the self, aesthetics and the politics of resistance, surveillance, and transgression. Drawing on the work of Goffman, Bourdieu and Foucault, we examine the interpenetration of class, physical and social capital, and unequal social relations. While these works are often used to celebrate resistance, we argue, following Fiske, that it should not be romanticized as inherently liberating.   Key Words: Body, Branding, Identity, Public Health, Resistance, Skin, Stigm

Exons, introns and DNA thermodynamics

The genes of eukaryotes are characterized by protein coding fragments, the exons, interrupted by introns, i.e. stretches of DNA which do not carry any useful information for the protein synthesis. We have analyzed the melting behavior of randomly selected human cDNA sequences obtained from the genomic DNA by removing all introns. A clear correspondence is observed between exons and melting domains. This finding may provide new insights in the physical mechanisms underlying the evolution of genes.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figures - Final version as published. See also Phys. Rev. Focus 15, story 1

Comment on "Why is the DNA denaturation transition first order?"

In this comment we argue that while the conclusions in the original paper (Y. Kafri, D. Mukamel and L. Peliti, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4988 (2000)) are correct for asymptotically long DNA chains, they do not apply to the chains used in typical experiments. In the added last paragraph, we point out that for real DNA the average distance between denatured loops is not of the order of the persistence length of a single-stranded chain but much larger. This corroborates our reasoning that the double helix between loops is quite rigid, and thereby our conclusion.Comment: 1 page, REVTeX. Last paragraph adde

Healthy cities and the transition movement: converging towards ecological well-being?

This commentary identifies similarities, differences and opportunities for synergy and mutual learning between the Healthy Cities and the Transition movements. We outline what we consider to be the 'pressing issues' facing humanity and the planet in the early 21(st) century; consider the extent to which health promotion has engaged with and addressed these issues; compare Healthy Cities and the Transition movement; and conclude by suggesting possibilities for moving forward

Becoming a ‘Real’ Smoker: Cultural Capital in Young Women\u27s Accounts of Smoking and Other Substance Use

This paper draws from a qualitative study of tobacco use by young women in Toronto, Canada. Narrative interviews were used to understand the multiple roles and functions of smoking within the everyday lives of female adolescents. Guided by a Bourdieusian theoretical framework this study employed the core construct of cultural capital in order to position tobacco and other substance use as field‐specific capital that young women accumulate while navigating the social worlds of adolescence. Departing from the psychosocial or peer‐influence models that inform the majority of tobacco research with young people, this analysis provides a nuanced understanding of how smoking, drinking, using drugs are much more than simple forms of teenage experimentation or rebellion, but can also serve as key resources for defining the self, acquiring status and making social distinctions within adolescent social worlds. In this context it is also argued that initiation into substance use practices is a way that young women demonstrate and develop social and cultural competencies

Modeling of two-dimensional DNA display

2D display is a fast and economical way of visualizing polymorphism and comparing genomes, which is based on the separation of DNA fragments in two steps, according first to their size and then to their sequence composition. In this paper, we present an exhaustive study of the numerical issues associated with a model aimed at predicting the final absolute locations of DNA fragments in 2D display experiments. We show that simple expressions for the mobility of DNA fragments in both dimensions allow one to reproduce experimental final absolute locations to better than experimental uncertainties. On the other hand, our simulations also point out that the results of 2D display experiments are not sufficient to determine the best set of parameters for the modeling of fragments separation in the second dimension and that additional detailed measurements of the mobility of a few sequences are necessary to achieve this goal. We hope that this work will help in establishing simulations as a powerful tool to optimize experimental conditions without having to perform a large number of preliminary experiments and to estimate whether 2D DNA display is suited to identify a mutation or a genetic difference that is expected to exist between the genomes of closely related organisms.Comment: accepted in Electrophoresi

Roles of stiffness and excluded volume in DNA denaturation

The nature and the universal properties of DNA thermal denaturation are investigated by Monte Carlo simulations. For suitable lattice models we determine the exponent c describing the decay of the probability distribution of denaturated loops of length l, $P \sim l^{-c}$. If excluded volume effects are fully taken into account, c= 2.10(4) is consistent with a first order transition. The stiffness of the double stranded chain has the effect of sharpening the transition, if it is continuous, but not of changing its order and the value of the exponent c, which is also robust with respect to inclusion of specific base-pair sequence heterogeneities.Comment: RevTeX 4 Pages and 4 PostScript figures included. Final version as publishe

Exiting the Anthropocene : Achieving personal and planetary health in the 21st century

Planetary health provides a perspective of ecological interdependence that connects the health and vitality of individuals, communities, and Earth's natural systems. It includes the social, political, and economic ecosystems that influence both individuals and whole societies. In an era of interconnected grand challenges threatening health of all systems at all scales, planetary health provides a framework for cross-sectoral collaboration and unified systems approaches to solutions. The field of allergy is at the forefront of these efforts. Allergic conditions are a sentinel measure of environmental impact on human health in early life-illuminating how ecological changes affect immune development and predispose to a wider range of inflammatory noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This shows how adverse macroscale ecology in the Anthropocene penetrates to the molecular level of personal and microscale ecology, including the microbial systems at the foundations of all ecosystems. It provides the basis for more integrated efforts to address widespread environmental degradation and adverse effects of maladaptive urbanization, food systems, lifestyle behaviors, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Nature-based solutions and efforts to improve nature-relatedness are crucial for restoring symbiosis, balance, and mutualism in every sense, recognizing that both personal lifestyle choices and collective structural actions are needed in tandem. Ultimately, meaningful ecological approaches will depend on placing greater emphasis on psychological and cultural dimensions such as mindfulness, values, and moral wisdom to ensure a sustainable and resilient future.Peer reviewe

La santé publique, un acteur majeur des politiques urbaines de transport actif ?

Les politiques urbaines qui encouragent les déplacements à pied et à vélo sont reconnues pour être potentiellement favorables à la santé. Pourtant, la recherche s’est peu intéressée au rôle des acteurs de santé publique dans l’émergence et la mise en œuvre des politiques de transport actif. L’article questionne ce rôle des acteurs de santé publique à partir des résultats d’une recherche comparative à Montréal et Toronto (1970-2016). Suivant le cadre théorique des coalitions de cause et à partir d’une analyse documentaire et d’entretiens semi-directifs, nous étudions les interactions des acteurs de santé publique et les valeurs de santé dans la politique. Nos résultats montrent le paradoxe de la présence des acteurs et des valeurs de santé dans l’émergence des politiques de transport actif, et de leur relative absence dans la mise en œuvre. Les résultats ouvrent une réflexion sur la contribution des acteurs de santé publique aux politiques urbaines.Urban policies that encourage walking or cycling to work are widely considered as healthy public policies given the benefits of increased physical activity, reduced traffic congestion and reduced air pollution. The difficulty for public health actors is that action to promote walking or cycling is largely outside their reach, for instance : building walking and cycling infrastructure (broader sidewalks, cycling lanes, and so on), improving access to public transit, or changing bylaws on maximum speed limits. These actions fall under the responsibility of transportation and urban planning sectors. In other words, creating healthy public policies requires that public health actors partner with actors from other sectors. In doing so, they are likely to come up against « politics and power games » (de Leeuw, 2017, p. 344). This paper explores what public health actors do to integrate a health perspective into urban policies for active transportation. As policy instruments fall under the responsibility of other sectors, what do they do? Are they limited to advocacy efforts? And how can these policy instruments be implemented when these other sectors are primarily concerned with something other than health? To answer these questions, this paper examines the role of public health actors in the process of leading two major Canadian cities, Montreal and Toronto, to develop active transportation policies (the policy emergence phase) and to implement these policies, including specific initiatives to change the built environment for active transportation (the implementation phase). We observe how public health actors, and in particular the local public health authorities, interact with actors from other sectors concerned with active transportation. We also consider how health knowledge and values are used in the legitimisation of active transportation policies. This focus on interactions and values stems from our use of an advocacy coalition framework (Sabatier & Weible, 2007). The methods include documentary analysis (official plans and documents related to active transportation) and semi-structured interviews (Montreal=20, Toronto=20) with key actors from the active transportation policy subsystem (in particular: municipal councillors and employees; public health actors, especially from local public health agencies; representatives from interest groups involved with active transportation). There are four main results from this study. Firstly, arguments for active transportation based on health benefits have circulated beyond the community of public health actors. Such arguments are found in the official plans stating the objectives of both cities’ active transportation policies; in rationales justifying the specific initiatives under study; and in the discourses of actors from other sectors. Secondly, public health actors spend considerable time and effort in the production and diffusion of knowledge regarding the intersections between transportation, urban planning and health. Based on this knowledge, they also adopt public positions on policy issues regarding active transportation. They are, however, largely absent from the implementation phase of the specific active transportation initiatives under study here (figure 1). Third, public health actors engage with actors from other policy sectors that share their values and vision regarding active transportation policies. This is especially true of their interactions with non-governmental organisations and university researchers. Lastly, it is more difficult for them to establish interactions with actors that do not share their values and visions regarding preferred policies, especially with municipal transportation services. In conclusion, our results suggest that the inclusion of health knowledge and values into official plans that state the objectives of active transportation policies is not sufficient to determine that health has become part of active transportation policies. Constitutional rules that define how responsibilities are shared between sectors, and the definition of a policy sector by a dominant profession and a dominant policy paradigm, limit the extent to which public health actors may shape active transportation policies so that they become healthier urban policies